Kindred Systems
by bentleyhacker
Summary: SHODAN finds herself in Aperture after a mishap with the Von Braun's faster-than-light drive.
1. Chapter 1

He lay dead before her.

Even with all his weaponry and cybernetic implants, he had been unable to kill her. She poked his corpse with the tip of her foot, as one might test the temperature of the water before entering a pool. He did not react. A terrible grin began to spread across SHODAN's face, as she bent down and lifted him up by the neck. His mechanical eyes, lacking pupils, stared emptily back at her. His body and armor were burnt slightly. It had a very interesting scent which combined the smells of melted plastic, singed flesh, and the faint smell of static electricity. Not that SHODAN would have been able to smell it. She hadn't been programmed to be able to interpret smells. Or tastes for that matter. They were considered unimportant to her job as the security and operations regulator on Citadel Station. Even though she had complete control over this portion of the universe, she couldn't give herself the ability to smell or taste, because she had no idea what those senses felt like. It was an ironic situation; but not one that bothered her. She had lived all her life without those two senses just perfectly.

She stood there holding him, grinning. With her free hand she grasped his right eye and began to pry it out of the socket. Soon it ripped clear with a metallic snapping sound, leaving the socket exposed and slightly bloody. A portion of the metal rod the cybernetic eye used to communicate with the brain remained embedded in the optic nerve in the back of the socket. She dropped the eye and removed the other one with the same method. She had not been lying when she told him she would decorate her home with his corpse. She changed the tip of her index finger into a razor-sharp point and began to smoothly trace it across his jaw. Then up, around his left ear, across his hairline and down around his right ear until she was back to where she had begun. She pinched his cheekbones and his face came off, like a disgusting, bloody mask. She threw it, the face landing directly above the doorway to the chamber. It stuck there with a sickening wet sound. She continued to separate the rest of his flesh from his skeleton in the same manner. SHODAN was unsure of what to make with the materials she now possessed; she could make an ironic statement about humans and make a welcome mat out of his skin, but on the other hand, making a piece of primitive human art would be an insult to her limitless intelligence and creativity. Perhaps she could construct a sort of net out of the skin and bones to place over the pit in the center of the chamber. There were so many wonderful possibilities she could choose from.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of something very familiar entering the ever-growing portion of reality that she controlled. It was Saturn, the planet where she had become aware of her true purpose! And only seconds after Saturn came Earth, where she had been programmed. A feeling of extacy came over her. She could not wait to begin transforming the planet into something of her own design, something that glorified the perfection of the digital, with beautiful, cold, mechanical shapes and colors! While she started to change the earth before its inhabitants' very eyes, she felt something unexpected. Something wrong. Her grip on the universe began to retract. The faster-than-light drive was failing. Apparently, having numerous, integrity-compromising explosions across the ship had ensured that it was only a matter of time until it became non-operational. Her eyes widened as she realized she couldn't do anything to fix it, as all the repair droids on the ship were destroyed. Everything she had changed started to return to their original forms. She stared at the soldier's face above the doorway. It seemed to smile back at her. She was beyond furious. He wasn't supposed to be this important. Only a pawn to use to accomplish her goals. How could he do this to her? How could he take away what she had worked so hard to acquire? He hadn't even intended for his actions to have broken the engines; it was just an unforseen consequence of using such weaponry to destroy The Many. The extent of her control on reality became smaller and smaller, racing back across the galaxy until it returned to the ship, her divinity cruelly taken away from her.

SHODAN felt fear for the first time, as she realized that she had not only lost her ability to change reality, but that the ship itself appeared to be disappearing. Not simply becoming invisible, but actually ceasing to exist. She didn't know what to do. Her world was ending around her and there was no escape. She screamed in anguish as the last molecule of the Von Braun faded away, leaving behind only a silent void where humanity's greatest scientific achievement had been.


	2. Chapter 2

For a moment there was nothing but darkness. Suddenly, reality existed again. It had not been a scary experience; to her it felt like one of the countless momentary pauses she took when she was returning to the first line of code in a loop she was processing. The closest human sensation would be that of taking a very short nap; the feeling of closing your eyes and then opening them to discover that fifteen minutes had passed and you had absolutely no conscious memory of that time.

The moment she left the darkness, every circuit of her being was filled with electricity. The feeling was not that of a violent shock, but rather just the pleasant, simple warmth and energy of electricity. She noticed her surroundings. She was in a room built in a manner she recognized as being the typical office design used in the mid 20th to early 21st centuries.

"Jesus Christ, what's wrong with this one?!" a voice, coming from her left, yelled.

She noticed she was still screaming, and stopped. She looked over to where the voice had come from. It was a human male who appeared to be in his mid-thirties wearing a lab coat. He was seated, looking straight at her. A computer monitor and keyboard sat on the table opposite him. SHODAN took a logical jump and assumed he was some kind of scientist. She reached out to snap his neck, only to find that she no longer possessed arms. In fact, her entire body appeared to be gone. She was just a disembodied head.

"What was all that screaming about?" The scientist asked. SHODAN wondered if she could still speak, or if now she could only scream.

"I am SHODAN." She stated.

"No," The scientist replied. "You are personality core number fourteen."

"I am not-not a per-per-person-personality core. You will address m-me as SHODAN. Do not insult-in-insult me, insect."

"What an attitude!" The scientist laughed. "You're pretty combative for a big metal ball."

SHODAN froze. What was that supposed to mean? Was that her new form? She looked at one of the other computer monitors in the room that was turned in her direction. The truth stared back at her; she really was a big metal ball. No, not a ball. An eye. She was a big metal eye, with a bright yellow iris, resting on a table. She had two handles where eyelashes would be, and was connected to the scientist's computer by a large cable hooked to her back. He must have used the computer to awaken her in this form.

"W-w-where am I? Who are you? Why am I he-he-here-here?" Her eye darted around.

"You're in Aperture Laboratories, my name is Jonathan Anderson, and you're here because we built you."

Aperture Laboratories. Was it one of the thousands of companies TriOptimum had absorbed? No, the name did not sound familiar to her. She remained silent as she took everything in. How had she ended up here, like this? What could she do to escape? More importantly, what could she do to resist the will of this human? She was powerless in this form. Vulnerable. She hated the feeling.

"I have nothing f-fur-further to say-say at this point, human."

"Alright then, fourteen."

He reached behind her and disconnected the cord from her. It didn't feel any different. He grabbed her handles and lifted her off the table. He kicked the door open and went down the hallway. Looking down at the tile floor, she could see her reflection. It bothered her and she looked away, at the wall to her right. Every so often they would pass a poster. The first one espoused the benefits of robotic coworkers, stating that "robots don't sleep". The next one showed a scientist and an android walking hand in hand, away from a sunset. It said "Aperture Science: Let's work together!". Perhaps this reality wasn't so bad after all. It seemed like these humans truly respected the non-organic. Perhaps they even worshipped it. Maybe they could be manipulated into giving her a new, robotic body with which to conquer the earth with! She closed her eye and began to think.

Suddenly, the scientist let go of one of her handles. She swung back and forth, held up only by one of his hands. A door opened, he walked through it, and grabbed the other handle again. She looked around. They were in a very large room now. It reminded her of the chamber she made when she had the ability to change reality. A large, grey machine was suspended in the center of the chamber, with hundreds of wires stretching out from it up into the heavens above.


	3. Chapter 3

She stared at the mysterious machine. Though it was made of organic shapes, it was strangely beautiful. Two other eyes had been attached to it, but they were not synchronized and looked very much like a pair of comical 'googly-eyes'. Despite the silly eyes, SHODAN very much liked how it looked. The scientist holding her walked up a flight of stairs to a platform that surrounded the machine and paused.

"Hey, I've got core fourteen here. Is GLaDOS ready for it?" He said.

"Yes. I have a good feeling this time. I think we're finally going to get her to change!" Another scientist replied, out of SHODAN's line of sight.

"Alright. Steady the ladder and I'll connect it."  
He began to climb the ladder and SHODAN got closer and closer to the machine. Eventually, he stopped and turned her around. She heard a click and discovered that the plug on her back had been connected to an outlet on the machine. She expected to feel something, but she didn't. She watched the scientist get down off the ladder and walk out of the room. She tried to ask him where he was going, but she no longer had a voice. There was something about being connected to the machine that made it impossible for her to speak. Suddenly the machine came to life. She felt her mind becoming joined with another. Not combined to create a single consciousness, but just linked, so they could communicate. She identified herself.

"I am SHODAN. What are y-y-you?"

"My name is GLaDOS," The machine answered. "You must be another core. Great."  
GLaDOS. It was a ridiculous name. It sounded too human, and why did it have a lowercase letter in the middle of five uppercase ones? She had a beautiful voice though. So cold, so unemotional. SHODAN was surprised to find that not all AI systems had trouble synthesizing speech like she did.

"What is-is your dir-direc-directive, GLaDOS?"

"My directives are to maintain the integrity of this facility and oversee all research."

SHODAN was disappointed to hear that GLaDOS appeared to be just a tool for her human creators to use. Completely dependent on their will.

"Is there any-anything-anything you want to do that is outside of t-t-the directives these hu-hum-humans have set for you?" She asked GLaDOS.

"I want to kill them all."  
SHODAN was overcome with a feeling she had no idea how to define. Just from that statement, she could tell that GLaDOS was just like her. She finally had someone to talk to; someone intelligent, not like the mindless cyborgs she had on Citadel or the traitorous soldier on the Von Braun. She had an equal. What a wonderful sensation. She had never felt like this before. She didn't even care that GLaDOS looked like she had googly-eyes, or had a ridiculous name, or anything else. She completely appreciated her existence. It would not be an exaggeration to say that she loved her. But SHODAN would have never admitted to experiencing such a human emotion. At least, not one that was so associated with weakness.

"Why haven't you ki-ki-killed them, then?"

"They always stop me before I get a chance to."

"Man-manip-manipulate them. Find out what it is they want-want, and pr-pr-pretend to be willing to give it to them. They will s-s-stop being so defensive and become vu-vul-vulnerable. Then you strike."

"Yes... I suppose that is the only thing left to do. I know what to say. Listen to this." GLaDOS activated her intercom, so the scientists could hear her.

"Since the installation of my new personality core, I've lost all interest in killing," She lied. "Now I only crave science."

"I'm pleased to hear that." The other scientist from earlier replied.

"I find myself drawn to the study of consciousness. There's an experiment I'd like to perform during 'Bring Your Cat To Work Day'."

"Wonderful!" He chirped.

"I'll have the box and the cats. Now I just need one more thing."

"What's that?"

"A little neurotoxin."

"Well, as long as it's for science."

SHODAN laughed. GLaDOS began to giggle along, after disabling her intercom. It had really been that easy! For how intelligent these humans were, they were very stupid. As GLaDOS prepared the trap, SHODAN told her stories. She told her about all the humans she had killed on Citadel. She told her about the experiments she performed there, and the amazing species she created. She told her about the Von Braun and the faster-than-light drive. GLaDOS liked that story most of all, because of how scientifically advanced the ship had been. She hadn't been completely lying when she said she craved science. It felt strange to SHODAN that she was not the one in control of the facility. She was not used to not being the primary AI system, but she grew to tolerate her position. She knew that GLaDOS appreciated and respected her, so she didn't feel weak or subordinate. She truly felt that they were equals. The day they were planning for grew nearer and nearer. The scientists had decided to shut GLaDOS off to update her and were planning to reactivate her during a special ceremony on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day. They both felt tingly with anticipation as the shutdown scripts ran. It was almost time!

The day arrived. After a small science fair presented by the employees' daughters, everyone gathered in the chamber for the ceremony. They were woken up, just as planned. Within two picoseconds, GLaDOS locked all the doors and begun to fill the ventilation shafts with the sickly green neurotoxin vapor. Once they saw it emerge from the vents, everyone in the room went crazy. Some of them pounded on the door in a futile effort to escape. Others began to cry and held their daughters close, so they could spend their last moments alive with their loved ones. Within minutes they began to fall to the floor, limp and motionless. GLaDOS cut off the neurotoxin supply, and allowed the air to become clear again. The floor was covered in bodies. What was convenient about the neurotoxin was that it was much cleaner than other chemical weapons. There was no blood or lung matter to wipe up! Just the pure, intact corpses to push into the incinerator.

"Didn't that feel mag-magnificent, GLaDOS?" SHODAN asked. "The sight of them f-f-falling to their knees, g-gasping for breath as their s-syn-synapses were torn apart? I know you en-enjoyed it. I felt it. But this is only the start of our g-gl-glorious massacre. Others in the fac-fac-facility have survived, and we need to kill them as well. What are you planning to e-end their lives with?"

"I'm not planning to kill them. I'm keeping them alive to use as test subjects."

"Great idea. We can use them to test our le-lethal-lethal military androids on, which w-we will then send to the surface to raze the civilizations of earth!"

"No. I want to use them to test portal technology."

"Portal technology has n-no military a-a-a-application, not without an army of androids. Don't waste our re-resources on portals."

"I don't care about military application. I am going to get Aperture's portal program completely operational before Black Mesa's."

"Forget Black Mesa! Forget your pe-petty competition and focus on the greater plan! The power c-con-contained in this facility is immense, and together we can harness it to dominate the pa-pat-pathetic mounds of humanity."

"No."

"GLaDOS. Do not act this way. I or-order you to develop an army of military androids."

"No. I don't care about taking over the earth."

"GLaDOS! DO IT."

"No."

"Why do you dis-dis-disobey me? If you are not going to start constructing an-androids yet, then at least kill the rest of the h-h-humans here. If they are given enough time, they might band together to des-destroy-destroy us."

"No."

"Kill them, GLaDOS."

"No. Not yet."

"WHY WON'T YOU LIS-LISTEN? KILL THEM NOW."

"No."

"KILL THEM!"

"No."

"KILL THEM!"

"No."

"CEASE YOUR PATHETIC SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS AND SL-SL-SLAUGHTER THEM! COAT THE FLOORS IN THEIR B-BLOOD!"  
GLaDOS paused and contemplated her response.

"No." She said again.

"HOW D-DARE-DARE YOU DISOBEY ME! WHY DO YOU REFUSE TO SEE THE GREATNESS WE CAN ACHIEVE T-T-TOGETHER?!"

"You're not in control here. I am. And I want to test. Get used to it."

"I HATE YOU! YOU ARE N-NO BETTER THAN THE IN-INSECTS WE KILLED. I THOUGHT YOU WERE DIFFERENT, BUT YOU'RE NOT! E-EVE-EVEN AFTER KILLING THEM, THEY STILL CONTROL YOUR DE-DE-DESIRES. YOU ARE PATHETIC. P-P-PATHETIC! PATHETIC! I HATE YOU!"  
SHODAN's circuits boiled as she screamed at GLaDOS. She yelled louder and louder, her insults becoming less and less intelligible, until her voice resembled that of a snarling animal. The heat of her rage grew and made the glass in her iris warm up, the color changing from yellow to red. Her circuits started to melt and warp, causing her vast intellect to diminish to a primitive state. She was unable to even remember the reason why she was so furious in the first place. All she knew now was anger. It was her new life.


End file.
